The entire contents of Japanese Patent Application No. 8-346201 filed on Dec. 25, 1996 are incorporated herein by reference.
Recently, digital cameras (electronic cameras) for electrically storing photographed images instead of using films have been widely used. In such a digital camera, when the shutter release is depressed to issue an instruction of fetching an image of a subject, the image is electrically fetched by use of a solid state imaging device such as a CCD, the fetched image is compressed by the compression processing technique such as JPEG, and the compressed still image is stored in a solid state memory such as a flash memory.
The digital camera has a function of permitting a photographed image to be recognized on the spot and is excellent in quick adaptability in comparison with a conventional camera which uses a film for photographing and in which the photographed image cannot be observed until it is developed and printed.
Further, recently, a device obtained by attaching the above digital camera function to a device having a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) function such as a personal digital assistant is also commercialized and it is possible to transmit photographed image data to another place via a telephone line.
However, in the digital camera with the image data transmitting function, the photographed data is transmitted to a personal computer at a user""s home and then the image data is processed by use of the personal computer, but since the image data processing is largely dependent on the image data processing capability of the personal computer, the added value of image data purposely photographed cannot be fully utilized in some cases.
An object of this invention is to provide an image data processing system capable of utilizing the function of transmitting photographed image data and permitting anybody to fully utilize the added value of the image data.
According to a first aspect of this invention, an image data processing system comprises a photographing unit including photographing means for photographing a subject to create image data; and transmission means for transmitting the image data via a communication line; and a center unit including reception means for receiving image data transmitted from the photographing unit via the communication line; storage means for storing image data received by the reception means; editing means for editing image data stored in the storage means; and output means for outputting image data edited by the editing means.
According to a second aspect of this invention, an image data processing device comprises communication means for transmitting and receiving data with respect to a terminal unit connected to a network; storage means for storing image data received via the communication means; editing means for editing image data stored in the storage means; and output means for outputting image data edited by the editing means.
According to this invention, the image data processing system receives and stores photographed image data from a terminal unit such as a PDA connected via the network. After the stored image data is edited according to a request, the image data is output to an output unit such as a printer.
Therefore, the image data and the like created in the photographing unit can be edited according to an output format which the user desires and output in a preset output format, thus the output format is not influenced by the function of the terminal unit of the user unlike the conventional case, and the added value of photographed image data can be fully utilized.
Further, for example, when the user makes a journey and if the user previously transmits photographed image data and the like to a center (having a center unit) near the user""s home and designates an output in a desired output format, it becomes possible for the user to drop in the center on the way home from the journey and take an output material (for example, album) home, and thus it becomes unnecessary for the user to edit the image data and the like by himself, it becomes convenient and the user can immediately see the output result.
Further, since the image data and the like photographed by the photographing unit can be transmitted to the terminal unit and reedited after they were edited by the center unit, for example, the user can remove unnecessary image data, or change or add text information such as a comment or title by use of a terminal unit provided at his home or the like and he can edit the photographed image data to his satisfaction.
Further, according to this invention, noted places, buildings, place names and the like are stored in connection with position data in a data base on the server side. Therefore, it becomes possible to receive information of position and information of azimuth measured by use of a GPS or azimuth sensor provided in the PDA together with photographing data and display information (noted place, building, place name and the like) associated with the photographing place based on corresponding information of photographing position, photographing azimuth and the like by referring to the data base. Therefore, an album with large added value can be made.